


bed of roses

by lapishive



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, F/M, Flowers, Kissing, Lots of other soft stuff, Romance, dreamy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-13 00:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18021113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lapishive/pseuds/lapishive
Summary: Now she knew the types of seeds from each other, could count the number of petals on a violet to make sure it was growing properly, and even tell the amount of sunlight needed between an orchid and a sylleblossom.But most importantly, she knew exactly the day her flowers would die.





	bed of roses

It took her a long time to learn how to tame the garden. She isn’t sure why she got into the habit in the first place. Before she turned thirteen, she hadn’t known the difference between a violet and a chrysanthemum, running over the fields and crushing their blue petals under the heels of her shoes, causing a near upheaval when she reached down at the dinner table to peel them off her soles. She couldn’t remember what had caused that shift. Perhaps seeing all those flowers withering, and the equally sapped old maid struggling to tend to them day in and day out that made her heart change. Tenebrae was not to be known as a land that would leave their blossoms unattended, and certainly not stuck under the careless feet of a little girl. Now she knew the types of seeds from each other, could count the number of petals on a violet to make sure it was growing properly, and even tell the amount of sunlight needed between an orchid and a sylleblossom. 

  
But most importantly, she knew exactly the day her flowers would die.    
  
When he appeared for the first and only time, she almost didn’t notice. The dark stripes of hair she saw between the blades of grass looked like stray calla lilies, ones that had bloomed wildly on the side when she had scattered the seeds. It wasn’t until the figure moved, and two violet blue eyes shot open, that she realized this lily was going to be much more difficult to weed out. 

  
“ _ Hah _ -W-“    
  
Dirt fell from Noctis’s hair in little clumps. He stared at nothing for a moment, trying to process the land around him, before spitting out the blades of grass that had stuck themselves between his teeth.    
  
“Shit I-  _ gross _ \- I- Where...?”    
  
He turned, very softly, a breeze carding through the fabric of his leather jacket, popping up one side of the collar. His eyes searched the flowers, lingering on each petal and stem, before it landed on her, watching as the look on his face dropped.    
  
“....Luna....?”    
  
Her hand was so tight on the watering can, she thought she would snap the handle. She got to her feet in a second, turning on the edge of her heels and starting to walk away.    
  
“L-Luna- Hey- HEY LUNA-“    
  
Noctis scrambled where he was in the dirt, his feet making tracks in the seeds before he stumbled to his feet, tripping over a few rows of delilahs to hurry to her side.    
  
”Heh, wait up-! I didn’t mean to startle you I just-“    
  
She heard his boots get closer to her, crunching in the freshly laid soil. Before he got any closer, she stopped in her tracks, turning in one motion to look at him square.    
  
“Are you real?”    
  
Looking at him directly was almost too much for her. She found herself tongue-tied in regards any other phrase, speaking the first thing that came to her head. He blinked, and she noticed his eyelashes had gotten longer. The last time she had seen him was dressed up in a photo of his high school graduation, giving a dead smile to the camera. There was nothing dead about his face now, though. Not up close. He took a few steps back when she turned to look at him, his mouth opening slowly, and then closing, the leather of his gloves squeaking as he closed his fists.    
  
“...I was...gonna ask you the same thing.”   
  
“Well?”    
  
“W-Well, what?”    
  
“If you’re real, you should know it right? Even if I’m not? So, are you real?”    
  
Noctis blinked, running over the question in his head.    
  
“I....Well, if you’re not real, what does my opinion matter anyway?”    
  
They stared at each other for a moment. Noctis’s chest was rising and falling at an odd pace, his hands twitching at his sides, looking tense among the flowers that flowed like ocean waves in the wind. He had changed so much, and yet not at all. He had the same jacket, but it rested on different shoulders. The same shoes, but on different legs. The same eyes, but ones that were sunken into a different face. It was like looking at a shadow, or a flower that had finally bloomed, something utterly alien and yet...and yet...    
  
Luna put a hand over her face.    
  
“....I....apologize....I’m acting strange.”    
  
She let her hand slide down her forehead, looking at him between her fingers.    
  
“I didn’t mean to frighten you.”    
  
“NO- no, no, no, you didn’t! It’s fine!” Noctis put his hands out, shaking his head, quickly bouncing them back up to scratch at the base of his neck, “It’s...Its fine....Its all...fine.”    
  
His gaze shifted, turning to break their stare in a slow, deliberate movement, the tense look on his face fading as he caught a glimpse of the garden around him.    
  
“Do you remember this place?” Luna asked. The question didn’t really need answering, but she wanted to know.    
  
“...Tenebrae.” He said after a moment. It rolled off his tongue like ivy leaves, as if the word was a seed he had forgotten how to bury. “...Didn’t it used to be less...”    
  
“Lush?”    
  
“Y-Yeah...” He stepped around in a tiny circle, “...Were there this many flowers before?”    
  
“Ah...You must have left before I started... ,” She said, turning lightly, “I've taken up to growing more...Tending to this garden has been a hobby of mine..”   
  
“For how long?”    
  
“Eleven years.”   
  
“It’s beautiful.”    
  
“Thank you. Would you mind stepping out of the bluebells, then?”    
  
Noctis tensed, lifting up his foot to see a row of tiny cyan dots patting up the tip of his shoe.    
  
“Ah- Sorry, sorry.” He mumbled, hopping out into one of the beaten paths, brushing off his pants. A heated blush was on his face, and Luna, for the first time in a very long while, felt a tiny smile shrug at the corner of his lips. Nothing big enough for him to see, but enough.    
  
“It’s alright. I didn’t think you would be so timorous after all this time.”     
  
“Timorous?” Noctis tilted his head. “I-Is that a good or a bad thing.”    
  
“It’s a thing.”    
  
“O-Oh.”   
  
She waited for a second, before swinging her watering can back to her side, turning to walk down the beaten path between rows of petals.    
  
“I would ask how you’ve been, but I’m quite sure I know most of it.”    
  
Noctis’s shoes against the crunching dead leaves followed behind her, and like a breeze he was at her side in an instant, walking a little ways to her right, just enough for the cuffs for his black pants to scrape against the red violets.   
  
“Huh? You don’t know how I’ve been.”    
  
“Yes, I do.”    
  
“No, you don’t.”    
  
“You’ve been feeling upset lately because you’ve been told you can no longer attend your university. Rather than trying to apply for a part time job again, you’ve been sitting at home eating rock candy and playing video games. You recently got an alumni achievement award at your high school, but you choose not to go to the ceremony, and instead sat outside on a mini-golf course you used to visit when you were little until you got chased out, and have since been waiting for your father to give you more instructions for the past two weeks. So, in a way, you haven’t been much of anything lately.” 

  
Noctis stopped, shooting her a look.    
  
“...Did I really write you all that?”    
  
“Every word.”    
  
He grumbled. The red still shone on his face, and he plucked his hands out of his pockets, folding them across his chest.    
  
“Well...I know how you’ve been doing.”    
  
“Hm?” She tilted her head, still keeping a brisk pace.    
  
“...You stopped traveling about a month ago because of political issues. You received a lot of gifts, but kept none of them except a set of gold moon earrings. You came home for the first time in years to find everything the way you found it, only a few things out of place, everything exactly the way you imagined it. So....in a way...you’re...”    
  
He looked at her, the crinkle between his brow narrowing.    
  
“Sad.”    
  
A small weight descended onto her shoulders, making her back lean down a bit. Without knowing why, a hole opened up in her chest, making her feel as though the space between her ribs were as empty and metal as the watering can at her side. She stopped where she was, Noctis walking only a few spaces before stopping with her, turning to meet her eyes again.    
  
“...I-I didn’t-“   
  
“...I guess I must be a much better reader than you,” She said.    
  
She leaned over, tapping his nose with the tip of her finger.    
  
“I’m not sad.”   
  
Frustrated at first by the the touch, Noctis didn’t answer, a darker shade of red flooding his cheeks. He made a face however, even through his own embarrassment looking at her with one eyebrow raised, opening his mouth, then closing it, then opening it again before mumbling.    
  
“....Not at all?”    
  
“No.”    
  
“Not even a little bit?”   
  
“Nope, I am simply tired.”    
  
“Tired?”    
  
“Tired.”    
  
“That’s all?”    
  
“That’s all.”   
  
There was a beat, another stretch of silence. She was beginning to notice these more and more as the conversation progressed. It was like ditches they both hid behind, trenches they dug between themselves that kept them from speaking. Secrets hidden in the dirt each time, waiting to blossom into something beautiful or terrible. Or perhaps, maybe the only one digging the trenches was her.    
  
“...I’m sorry my life isn’t as interesting as yours,” She said after a moment. She walked a few paces again, starting up their gait, and this time Noctis did not stumble when he followed after her.    
  
“I think it’s interesting.” He said, “You get the travel the world. This is the first time I’ve been out of the country, dream or not. It must be wonderful.”    
  
“I would hardly count my missions as something to aspire to...” Luna said, “Yes, it is beautiful, but for me it is different. I see so much and I can only touch a handful of it. I always come back the same. What is there to like about a girl who never changes?”   
  
Noctis thought it over, turning to look at her again as they walked.    
  
“....I like your smile,” He said, “And your white rain boots. And your white dress. And your pretty white sun hat.”    
  
It was her turn to blush a different shade of pink, reaching up to grab at the sides of her floppy headwear as another hush of wind pulled through. 

  
Trees were beginning to build up along side of them, growing out of the well-trodden soil and up into the sky as they entered deeper into the forest. The garden did not stop at the end of woods, but spilled over, down a hill and onto the forest floor. She had been told not to plant there a few times, but the seeds had scattered themselves, sliding over each other without her agreement. She could not find the words to answer his comment.    
  
“W-“ Noctis said after she didn’t respond, “Why do you do that, anyway?”    
  
“Do what?”    
  
“Wear white all the time?”    
  
“It’s my favorite color.” Luna said, as though it was a rehearsed line.    
  
“Doesn’t it get dirty?”    
  
“A bit, but I don’t mind.” She said, looking down to watch the tails of her dress drag across the row of pink and blue marigolds, leaving traces of their plumage on the fabric like multi-colored fingerprints, “The flowers leave their memories behind on me.”    
  
“That’s so poetic...” Noctis said with a sigh. Luna rolled her eyes, another smile curling up her lips.    
  
“What about you, why do you wear black all the time?”    
  
“I-....Don’t really know,” Noctis said, tugging at the front of his t-shirt. “Something to do with the “Lucian Royal Colors”. I don’t wear much else.”    
  
“Do you like it?”    
  
“I guess.”    
  
“That's no good, you should do things that you like.”    
  
“You’re one to talk.”    
  
“What’s that supposed to mean,” Luna said, startled by the sudden change of conversation. Noctis had his lips pinched between his teeth, “I love what I do.”    
  
“Do you, Luna?”    
  
“Do  _ you _ , Noctis?”    
  
They had reached the end of the path without realizing it. The row of dandelions that had been treading under their feet stopped on the edge of a shallow pool, the sound of a waterfall running just a bit above them. They had played here so often as children that she had kept this place off limits to herself, too worried of the memories it would bring up, and too frightened of the way she would react. Under their feet were waves of blue, not only just from the water, but from the sylleblossoms, surrounding them on all slides, flowing in the wind with each bend and pull of the breeze. Their favorite flower.    
  
“Luna,” Noctis said her name so delicately, as if it were a daisy in his hands “...Why are you sad?”    
  
She kept her eyes fixed away from him, staring at the field of dusted sapphire, her dress picking up in the wind. There was nothing she could do to escape it now. She gently moved, letting her strength give way and gently, slowly falling down to sit on her knees. The watering can clanged at her side, tilted at an angle that send small rivets of water down the soil’s edge. Noctis did not question her, only moved to gently, slowly sit down next to her, like a dark shadow following in her stead.    
  
“...I have seen things,” Luna said finally.    
  
“...What kind of things?” Noctis asked.    
  
“Things...about the future.”    
  
“....One of your visions?”    
  
She nodded. It felt as though the ground was sinking beneath her mud stained knees, her body a small white ship in a sea of blue, ready to capsize over with each wave.    
  
“You’ve manage to avoid them before...like how you predicted that avalanche in Vesperpool,” Noctis said, “If this one is bad...maybe there’s a way around it. You always find a way.”    
  
There was a coal in her stomach. She shook her head.   
  
“This is....quite different.”    
  
“Harder to fix?”    
  
“Unavoidable.” Her voice was down to a whisper. Noctis was staring at her, the look of purity and confusion on his face shining so brightly she wanted to take it and bury it in the sand. He looked at the ground, then back up at her.    
  
“Can you...tell me what it is?”    
  
There was a trench so wide now between them that Luna could not see the bottom. Her heart felt as though it was sitting on a bed of roses, it’s thorns poking in all directions, hiding that terrible, terrible secret underneath it’s crimson petals. She could not look at him. How could she look at him, when still in the back of her mind she could see those eye sockets overgrown with wallflowers, purslane growing between his fingers, amaryllis waxing under the crux of his tongue, and his throne made a funeral parlor, drenched with lilies over the course of a thousand farewells. She could not look at that face without seeing a garden of the dead.    
  
She leaned over, moving gradually and gently pressed her lips to his cheek, his eyes, his temple, his nose. For the first time in a very long time, she had no idea what she was doing, letting the watering can fall from her grip to wrap her arms around shoulders.   
  
“-Luna”   
  
She could hardly hear him. She was kissing up and down his face, running her hands through his hair. He felt like a shadow, his hands pressed into his own legs, his eyelashes fluttering whenever she moved across them. Alive and beating under her.    
  
“L-Luna-“    
  
She showered him with all the affections she had kept behind those notebook pages, as if that would do anything to change is fate. As if maybe that could wake him up. But she never let their lips touch. That would be too much. Too much, too much, too much...    
  
“ _ Luna _ ”   
  
His voice finally snapped her out of it like a dream. She found her sanity, leaning back to see the little mess she had made him in her wake. Noctis’s hands were curled into tiny balls on his knees, one eye squeezed shut, his chest rising and falling at an uneven pace and his face looking like the inside of of poinsettia, his hair pulled in all different directions from her touching it. She would have laughed if not for the lump in her throat.    
  
“I....I’m sorry...” She said, her voice croaking out. She wasn’t sure if she was apologizing for this, or for not telling him.   
  
“N-No....” He said. His forehead was still pressed against her’s, his eyes filled with the deepest sort of passion she’d ever seen on those features. Something he refused to let out. “I-I just....think that if you keep doing that...I’ll disappear...”    
  
He sounded so small. There was a certain tenderness to his voice, something that she hadn’t heard in years. They were holding hands, their fingers tangled up like bellflower stems. She didn’t know when they had started doing that.   
  
“You have to go soon.”    
  
“I don’t want to.”    
  
“There’s so much that’s going to happen.”    
  
“I...I don’t care-”    
  
“ _ Noctis _ .”    
  
He let out this trembling sort of sigh, but did not pry her any further. He shut his eyes, than opened them, then shut them again, his hands squeezing tightly in her’s.    
  
“Okay...” He finally said, his voice cracking out in the smallest of ways.    
  
In a moment she saw a different vision. One where they stayed there forever. Where she kept him safe. Where the world ended around them and they remained in that garden of sylleblossoms, in that ocean of life.    
  
But it was gone as quick as it came, and soon her hands were empty.    
  
  
  



End file.
